Selective Consumer:
The consumer group is a very diverse one with lots of pockets to see where the spending is coming from. We know the homebuilders have been acting brave, as for the first time since last June home PRICES rose on a month-to-month basis. Cruise ships have been behaving as RCL just broke ABOVE a bear flag as it trades in a range between the round 60-70 numbers (peer NCLH rose 9% on Monday after a well-received earnings reaction although that is still lagging). Luxury has been an outlier with LVMUY (chart below) pausing just below the very round 200 number as a bull flag takes shape. Casual diners via CMG on Wednesday recorded its sixth straight CLOSE above the very round 2000 number. Peer WING blasted upward after numbers this morning. On the flip side, EL plunged 17% but managed to finish off intraday lows. And CVS, which has a huge presence, has risen just 5 weeks since the start of last December after encountering difficulty at the very round par number.